Marketing Architects
Managerial
2020-2022

Remote work brainstorm system

 

Brainsteering

GOAL: complete the prep work needed for a successful brainstorm.

"Briefing is often where it goes wrong ... invest in quality up-front thinking to ensure quality design outcomes ... It’s the philosophy of a slow start for a fast finish compared with the jump straight to solutions stage. The urge to start solving the problem is hard wired ... take the time to figure out what to do." WARC

  1. Decide who should be included in the brainstorm.

    • Is there someone who can introduce a unique perspective?

    • Is there someone who would be impacted by any decisions, and should be in the room?

  2. Gather the information needed for your brainstorm.

    • Bring people up to speed. What decisions have been made prior to this brainstorm, and why did we make those decisions?

    • A Creative Brief

    • Consider recording a quick explainer video that users can access at their own pace

Independent brainstorming

GOAL: remove fear of judgement and encourage the employee's unique point of view with anonymous brainstorming.

“Social anxiety (fears about how one’s ideas will be judged) can hinder original thinking and stifle the voices of introverted members” HBR

Invite attendees and send the brainstorm content from Brainsteering.

Ask the participants to brainstorm independently and add their ideas to a Miro digital whiteboard by the due date.

Expectations as follows:

  • Prioritize generating a variety ideas over developing one idea.

  • No need to self-censor… going into weird, unfinished, unexpected territory is encouraged!

  • Note most people start by generating the expected solutions. Once you get these down, keep pushing and see where you go.

  • Stuck? Consider the creative techniques explained in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.

Asynchronous collaboration

VARIATION ONE, use for high-level ideas

GOAL: build on existing ideas by asking attendees to work on their coworkers' ideas.

Share your Miro board with attendees. Ask them to read through everything, and build off of others' ideas. They could build off in the form of a question, an addition, a tangent, etc. If reading the content inspires something new, they may add a net-new idea.

During this phase, attendees have freedom to work in whatever way works best for them. Some people prefer to continue working asynchronously and anonymously. Others prefer to get on a call and talk about ideas.

VARIATION TWO, use for ideas that are further down the production funnel

GOAL: build on existing ideas by creating several rough, but comprehensive mockups, by by asking attendees to work on their coworkers' ideas.

Send attendees the following considerations:

  1. For designers, "How might I support this idea with design decisions?"

  2. For copywriters, "How might I support this idea with copywriting decisions?"

  3. Build out campaigns into all mediums required

Convergent, live brainstorm

GOAL: pitch and converge

The previous steps have all encouraged divergent thinking. People tend to converge on ideas when they brainstorm together, so this stage will yield some decisions.

During the meeting:

  1. Go around the room and let attendees briefly pitch 1-3 of their favorite ideas. Here, attendees should be supportive and encouraging.

  2. Take an anonymous speed vote to find the top ideas.

  3. Allow attendees to openly argue for and against ideas, using their black, red and white Thinking Hats

  4. End the meeting, and bring remaining ideas to any other important stakeholders, such as the sales team.

  5. The project owner makes a decision.

The brief-breaker

Goal: support the content with permission to think beyond the brief

Communicate the winning idea to the team, then pose the following questions (from TRIAD Advertising and Hey Whipple):

  • What else can we do to support the idea?

  • Where else can we introduce the idea?

  • How might we Pitch-Play-Plunge on social?

  • What is a brand action we could take to support the campaign?

Employees add their ideas to the digital whiteboard. The project owner reviews ideas and chooses whether to move forward with any.